Adaptive Control for Mechanical Ventilation for Improved Pressure Support

Respiratory modules are medical devices used to assist patients to breathe. The aim of this article is to develop a control method that achieves exact tracking of a time-varying target pressure, for unknown patient-hose-leak parameters and in the presence of patient breathing effort. This is achieved by an online estimation of the hose characteristics that enables compensation for the pressure drop over the hose. Stability of the closed-loop system is proven, and the performance improvement compared to the existing control strategies is demonstrated by simulation and experimental case studies.